These types of questions do not truly resonate until they hit close to home, directly affecting you or your loved ones, affecting a special little girl in our lives.

This past summer I listened to a powerful, riveting interview with Amy Purdy, the Paralympic medalist for snowboarding. She contracted a form of bacterial meningitis leading to septic shock, her legs amputated below the knee, and other serious health complications.  Amy Purdy described her near death experience.  When she was on “her last breath”,  “moving to the edge”,  she thought about the people she loved and all she loved about life, especially “all the sensory stuff….. the smell of rain…..the sound of ocean waves”.     

Every day, since listening to that interview, I have been keenly aware of my senses, and what I will miss when I leave this body.  I have observed more details in my surroundings, the scent of rosemary needles outside the yoga studio, how good that hug really feels and hummingbirds actually create a lot of sound.

Which one of my senses would I miss the most?  I have decided that it is my intuition, my gut feeling, my inner voice, that has had the greatest impact in my life. 

 Listening to my intuition has steered me in the right direction (when I have paid attention to it).  It led me to a move I made that changed the trajectory of my life.  It is how I met my life partner.  It is how I chose a career I loved for 25 years.  My life would likely have taken a very different course if I had always listened to the analytical part of my brain processing information from my other senses. 

 In retrospect, I have not always made the best decisions when I relied on cognitive reasoning, pros and cons deductions, other people’s well-intentioned advice………I should have listened to my gut.

As to the special little girl in our lives…..we were advised early on (before birth) that our little 2 1/2 year old may not see or hear.  We are very thankful this little girl sees well, always with a twinkle in her eye.  Her hearing is just fine, when she chooses to listen and this is confirmed by her witty responses and her “I can do it all by myself”.

Most of all, I hope she will pay attention to her sense of intuition to help guide her throughout her life.  I hope she listens to her inner voice to follow her dreams, help her through life’s adversities and life’s joys, to surround herself with the people she loves and who love her.